Theater

First of all, I’d like the Connecticut weathermen to prevent snow on weekends. This past weekend was the opening of the Warner’s production of “The Game’s Afoot (Holmes for the Holidays).” This is one of those wonderful Ken Ludwig plays….

Who hasn’t wondered if actors who kiss on stage are not moved by the physical act? Playwright Sarah Ruhl delves into this question with plenty of humor but also with a twist in her play within-a-play-within-a-play. That’s right, there are…

It’s not surprising when we hear that Yale Repertory Theatre or Connecticut Repertory Theatre have been nominated for production awards. After all, they’re Equity (Actors’ Union) professional colleges. When Sacred Heart University (SHU) in Fairfield gets included among them for…

“Nunsense” fans rejoice. Remember “Nunsense,” the first nun-sensation musical by Dan Goggin, which starred Semina DeLaurentis, artistic director for Seven Angels? In that episode, Sister Amnesia finally realized that she won a fortune. Since then, the nuns were able to…

Whether in print, on film or on stage, “The Color Purple” has pleased fans and critics alike. Connecticut theatergoers now will see the story in its musical form on stage this week at Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts,…

Three of the talented and highly experienced actors in Landmark Community Theater’s production of “It’s a Wonderful Life” know full well how important this play is to the audience. Many families make it an annual holiday tradition to watch the…

In keeping with the season, Town Players Little Theatre of Newtown produced a most appropriate play “The Trip to Bountiful,” by playwright Horton Foote. This is the story of Carrie Watts, an old widow who desperately wants to return to…

I recently received an email from a theatergoing reader who was disappointed that even after the audience stood in ovation and applauded for a long time, the cast of a musical did not provide an encore. While I’ve already written…

WATERBURY – Anyone who saw the Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” in the late 1980s might wonder why on earth that great blockbuster musical would need a make-over. After all, it originally took the…

Two local girls are starring in the White Rabbit Theatre production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” The White Rabbit Theatre is a not-for-profit community theater company out of Glastonbury that was founded in 2015. Cheyenne Walent of Waterbury is playing Muzzy…

Congratulations to Christine Seibold and staff on their studio’s 15th anniversary. In celebration of this benchmark, the Southbury School of Performing Arts will present its first-ever theater production. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the arts. Shannon…

Past generations of “Sesame Street” fans, “Avenue Q” is for you. It’s the grown-up version of furry puppets who now have to face real life issues such as unemployment after college, racism, homosexuality and sex. In its audience-pleasing context, this…

There are times when a sudden news item comes across my desk that alerts me to the opening of a new theater. It’s always such a surprise. For instance, the two new theaters that are opening in Ridgefield came as…

The year is 1910 and a ship full of immigrants is making its way to New York Harbor. Those onboard are excited and singing “We’ve talked about America; we’ve dreamed about coming to America,” and now here they are. In…

There are times when reality seems far more impossible than fiction. All things considered, how likely is it that on one December night in 1956, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins would show up at a…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has set his sights on a new target: filmmaker and Trump critic Michael Moore. Trump tweets: “While not at all presidential I must point out that the Sloppy Michael Moore Show on Broadway was…

For Cole, the music of “Million Dollar Quartet” is not just nostalgic, it’s inspiring. The Las Vegas-based performer will take the stage at Waterbury’s Seven Angels Theatre tonight in the role of the legendary Elvis Presley. “Well, it’s big shoes…

When Dylan Thomas wrote his poem on aging and death his advice was “Do not go gentle into that goodnight/ Old age should burn and rave at close of day.” So many performances of Ernest Thompson’s “On Golden Pond” literally…

What’s a down-and-out Edwardian gentleman to do, when he learns that he actually has a claim to a family fortune? He sets out to get it in the current Palace Theater production of “A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love & Murder.”…

It’s not often a play like “Female Transport” featuring so many strong roles for so many female actors comes along. For its last production, the Phoenix Stage Company presented “Rebel Yells,” featuring a male cast portraying Southern Civil War soldiers…

This past weekend will long be remembered by the Warner’s executive producer Sharon Wilcox and set designer/techie Steven Houk. They got engaged, but as Sharon remarked, it was “magical.” Not only magical, but definitely dramatic. How could it not be?…

It wasn’t so long ago that the public was bombarded with headlines accusing some small town priest or other of being a pedophile. This gave playwright John Patrick Shanley the impetus for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Doubt: A Parable.” Shanley,…

It may have been prohibition and the stock market had just crashed but Jacques Burlesque Theatre was still the place to go in 1929. Inspired by that historic burlesque house, the Mattatuck Museum is producing an original musical review of…

Kathy Farrell is honest. “If you want to see Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, rent the movie,” said the director of the Community Theatre at Woodbury’s production of Ernest Thompson’s “On Golden Pond.” Certainly Fonda and Hepburn created a fine…

Today, lovers of different races, colors and religions get married without scandal. That was not the case in the 1930s, the time frame of “Dark of the Moon,” nor in the 1940s when the play hit Broadway. In those days,…

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The rise and fall of flamboyant, ferocious Ezekiel Dlamini, a black South African boxer known as “King Kong” who was jailed for murder, inspired a 1959 musical whose black cast performed for multi-racial audiences, testing the apartheid…

When I learned that Ed Bassett was going to direct “Godspell” at Landmark Community Theatre at the Thom-aston Opera House, I was really surprised. Many directors direct at other theaters and even the Equity theaters will share entire shows. Still,what…

Like many young women, Sophie wants her father to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day. The problem is that she doesn’t know who her father is. He is most likely one of her mother’s three ex-lovers, whom…

Once those two little words uttered so sweetly at a marriage ceremony are spoken, the journey of a lifetime begins. It starts with “I Do,” but often includes a lot of “I Don’ts” along the way. In this beautiful musical…

Upcoming Events

Those who are unable to attend the book fair at Barnes & Noble are asked to visit BN.COM/bookfairs from Dec. 13 to Dec. 18. Enter Bookfair ID 12282067 at checkout. A percentage of purchases will benefit Kennedy High School’s Eagle...

Natural and recycled materials will be used, items may be brought from home, such as buttons, ribbons and fabric scraps. All other materials provided. Parents or guardians are welcomed to stay, but it is not necessary. Geared for grades 4...